Arthur and the two-headed dragon
by Guineverethered
Summary: Arthur, Merlin, Morgana and Gwen play together as children. Young!Merlin oneshot. My first fanfiction, so please review!


**Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin, any of the characters etc. If I did, certain characters from series five would definitely be still alive. **

Two boys raced down the corridor, knocking over a table, and into another room. One of them had shaggy black hair, and wore a blue cotton shirt that dwarfed him completely, and the other looked a little older, and had blonde hair. He held a short wooden sword in one hand, which he jabbed the other boy with, causing him to lose his balance and fall over.

"Ha! You've been slayed, monster!" The older boy cried victoriously, resting one foot on the dark-haired boy's back. The boy tried to wriggle away, but he was pinned down by the blonde's foot. "_Mer_lin, dead things don't move," he said critically. He let the younger boy up, who immediately scrambled away, and looked at the graze on his elbow from when he had fallen. He shot the other boy a wounded look.

"When do _I _get to be the knight?" he asked plaintively. Just as the other boy was about to reply, there was a knock and then the sound of the door creaking open. A girl with long, dark hair and strangely light eyes peered around the wooden door.

"Arthur, there you are," she said, stepping into the room.

"What do you want, Morgana?" Arthur demanded rudely.

"I'm bored," she said languidly. "Can I play with you?"

Arthur looked at Merlin, and then back at Morgana. His eyes lit up with the light of an idea.

"Alright," he said, and pointed to an ornately carved wooden chair. "Go and sit over there."

"Why?" the girl asked suspiciously, narrowing her eyes at him.

"You be the princess," Arthur explained, "and I'll rescue you from the dragon."

"No!" Morgana cried. "I don't want to be rescued, 'specially not by _you._"

"Well you can't be the knight," Arthur pointed out with a reasonable air.

"Then I'll be the dragon," she replied, lifting her chin slightly.

"You can't be the dragon either!"

"And why not?" Morgana said with a dangerous glint in her eye.

"You're a _girl_," Arthur said, exasperated.

"So?" Morgana said, raising one eyebrow slightly.

"So you've got to be the princess!"

"I don't want to be the princess. Make Merlin be the princess," she said stubbornly.

"Fine," Arthur sighed wearily. "Merlin, you're the princess."

Merlin, who had been watching this exchange with a grin on his face, started. His smile vanished, replaced by an expression of shock.

"What?" he cried in disbelief. "I don't want to be the princess _again,_ I'm a boy!"

"If I say you're a princess you're a princess," Arthur said grandly. There was another knock at the door, and they all looked around.

"Hello?" Gwen's voice echoed from outside of the room.

"Come in," Morgana said, beating Arthur to it. He glared at her for having the affront to say who could enter his own room, and she stuck her tongue out before turning to Gwen. "Do you want to play with us, Gwen?" she asked.

"We're being overrun by girls," Arthur whispered, disgruntled.

"Ignore the boy," Morgana said regally, waving her hand dismissively at him.

"What are you playing?" Gwen asked, quickly smoothing down her dress as she saw the young prince glaring at her.

"We're playing knights. Arthur's the knight, I'm the dragon, and Merlin's the princess," Morgana explained. Merlin looked at Gwen with an expression of hope.

"Maybe Gwen could be the-" he began.

"Nope," Arthur interrupted him, and Merlin's face fell. Morgana's lit up, however, and she smiled at Merlin in a way that worried him.

"You can't be a princess if you're not wearing a dress," she said slyly.

"You're right," Merlin beamed. "I'm not wearing a dress, am I Arthur? So I can't be the princess," he finished, pleased with his stroke of genius.

"Don't worry Merlin," Morgana said in a voice that was too innocent to be anything but evil. "I've got a dress you can borrow."

Merlin stared at her, horrified.

"Go on then Merlin," Arthur said with sadistic glee. Merlin stared at Arthur, his face still frozen in an expression of horror. As Morgana (and following her lead, Gwen) advanced upon him, he started to shake his head.

"Arthur, please," he said, as if he was being led to the gallows. They grabbed his arms, and started frogmarching him to the door. "Arthur, make them stop," Merlin begged.

"Bye Merlin," Arthur said cheerfully.

"Arthur!" Merlin cried, casting one last despairing look over his shoulder before he was dragged away. Morgana rolled her eyes at Gwen.

"It's just for a little while," Gwen said comfortingly.

"It's long enough," Merlin said in the voice of one already dead. "Arthur will never let this go."

The next few minutes were a blur of pale blues, silk and terrifyingly pink dresses. Eventually Merlin was manipulated by Morgana into wearing a long, deep purple gown with silver embroidery. Then they dragged him back to Arthur's room, and burst in. Arthur was sitting on the window ledge, his legs dangling outside. He turned, and when he saw Merlin, he burst out laughing. The young prince swung his legs inside, and strutted over.

"Aww, you look adorable, Merlin," he grinned, pinching Merlin's cheek. Merlin muttered something under his breath and shoved Arthur's hand away. "Tie him to the chair," Arthur commanded. Merlin sat down with an air of melancholy resignation, and allowed himself to be tied up with some cloth Arthur had procured from somewhere. "Squire, you can be the bait," he cried, pointing to Gwen.

"You can't have Gwen. Gwen's with me," Morgana said defensively, grabbing Gwen's arm.

"But there can't be two dragons," Arthur said. "Not that I couldn't defeat them," he added, "but that's not the point."

"Why don't we be a two-headed dragon?" Gwen suggested, ever the diplomat.

"Or Gwen could be the princess and I could be a knight," Merlin said.

"Shut up, Merlin," Arthur said, pointing his wooden sword at him.

"You can't threaten me, I'm a Princess. It's bad manners," Merlin sniffed.

"Right, you're getting gagged," Arthur said, procuring one of Merlin's scarves from nowhere.

"Where did you get my-" Merlin said, but the rest of the sentence was obliterated as Arthur shoved the scarf in his mouth. Arthur looked around for his sword, and turned just in time to see Morgana leaping off the four-poster bed and flying through the air towards him.

xxx

A while after this, King Uther walked down the corridor towards the training grounds, and was distracted by shrieks coming from the young prince's bedroom. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously and strode towards the chambers. The king flung open the door, and stopped dead. Morgana and her maid had tied their ankles to each other's with a napkin, and a dark green curtain they'd pulled down draped across their shoulders. With their outer arms they were clawing at Arthur while making hissing noises, while the young prince fought the girls off with a fork. Behind him that scrawny servant of Arthur's was tied to a chair with a red scarf stuffed in his mouth.

"Exactly what…" he said slowly, "Do you think you are doing?"

The four children froze, and looked up.

"We were just playing knights," Arthur said in a small voice, shrinking slightly under his father's disapproving glare.

"With servants," he said, looking at Gwen with distaste. Gwen looked away, and quickly untied the napkin. "What have I told you about playing with servants?"

"Not to," Arthur muttered.

"But they're our friends!" Morgana protested, barely restraining herself from stamping her foot with the injustice of it all. "Gwen and Merlin go everywhere where we go – how can you expect them to be anything else?"

Uther was silent for a moment, warring between his desire to shout at his wayward ward and not wanting to make a scene in front of the plebeians.

"Morgana, Arthur, if you would follow me," he said icily. "And you, I believe you are needed in the kitchens," he added curtly, looking at Gwen. She curtsied and rushed out of the room, not daring to look him in the eye. Morgana and Arthur looked at each other sheepishly, and followed Uther as he swept out of the room. Merlin was left tied to the chair.

"Hawwow?" he called. There was no answer.

Merlin gave a long-suffering sigh.


End file.
